Removing the "security banner" that shows a message before logon. (this is breaking the auto login sequence)
I figured it out though, I am able to use reg import if I use task scheduler to run the script at system startup, I guess it runs under different credentials (probably "system") so the edit goes through. So I have it running at system startup, and every hour for good measure. I'll probably end up having to add more stuff like disabling standby as that kills the VM and overall remote accessibility of the machine. The machine is running a VM that we will be using for stuff in our department. The IT dept that takes care of desktop is based outside our company and is super nazi about everything, so we tend to have to be creative to get stuff done. (this is all approved by management etc - basically my task is to just get it to work). Don't get me started with the forced reboots... that's part of the reason why I need to automate this otherwise the VM would be down half the time because the machine rebooted.
As a side note, the new task scheduler interface is freaking terrible. WTF Microsoft? So bloated and unintuitive to use.